


Of Ketchup and Suitcases

by kai_foxflight



Series: A World Beyond [4]
Category: SHINee
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-22
Updated: 2017-07-22
Packaged: 2018-12-05 15:18:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11580735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kai_foxflight/pseuds/kai_foxflight
Summary: Kibum and Taemin bond over the fact that only they can understand how the other feels.





	Of Ketchup and Suitcases

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: sent to live with cousins

“You’re sending me to live with Aunty Kim? Really?”

_ “Aunt Lee and Jinki? Are you  _ **_crazy_ ** _?” _

“I promise I’ll miss you, but not too much! It’ll be like old times for me and Jjongie!”

_ “I’m going to die if I go there.  _ **_Please_ ** _ don’t send me there. I’ll go to the US, China, wherever. I’ll even go to military school over going to live with them!” _

...

Taemin was bouncing—literally bouncing—as he scanned the crowds at the airport. It was hard, considering he was shorter than the average kid his age—he was still growing, but the thought of being taller eventually did nothing to help him in the present—and because he understood very few of the words thrown around in a language he barely remembered from his childhood, but he was trying his best to find people he’d only seen in photographs for the past few years. His efforts seemed wasted though, as he couldn’t find any of the three he was searching for. Not that he needed to worry—it took only a few seconds after he dropped down from his tippy-toes for a giant ball of energy to hit him from behind, sending him pitching forward before he was caught by arms around his waist. “Minnie! I’ve missed you!”

There were chuckles from people he couldn’t see, and Taemin eventually turned around in the arms to let his cousin hold him to his chest, smiling at the two ladies a few feet back. “I’ve missed you guys too.”

“You must be tired from the flight, right honey?” He gave his aunt as best a nod as he could, the action made harder by Jonghyun’s arms holding him tightly in place. “Then let’s get you home to sleep.”

“It’s okay…”

“Nonsense.” She smiled, a smile Taemin could still remember clearly from his childhood in Korea. “Jonghyun, take his bags for him.”

“I got—”

“It’s okay Minnie.” Jonghyun pulled back, finally letting Taemin go and looking as hyper as a new puppy. “They probably weigh as much as you anyways. Just walk with noona and look pretty~”

...

Kibum huffed as he hauled his suitcase off the final step of the train, an arm flying up to push the hair falling in his face back angrily. “They couldn’t even be bothered to pick me up… Had to take a stupid train from Daegu to Seoul for these idiots.” A commuter hit him from behind, sending the boy pitching forward and over his suitcase, hitting the hard concrete ground painfully. As tears sprung to his eyes, he heard a small chuckle, and then a deep voice that had been missing from his life for years.

“What are you doing down there, Bummie? That’s dirty.”

Immediately, the tears were gone as Kibum glared up at the older boy, eyes hardened as he picked himself up from the ground. “It’s cleaner than you at least. Couldn’t you at least change out of clothes covered in animal blood before coming here? I can smell it from here.”

Jinki paused for a second, grabbing his shirt and pulling it out slightly before looking down. “Where?”

“Oh, never mind.” Kibum only smirked when the elder looked at him in confusion. “I guess that’s just how you smell.” Before a response could be given, he looked around the station. “Get my bag for me.”

“Why—”

“Or I’ll tell my mom how mean you were to me and she’ll tell your mom and you know how that will go, don’t you?” When Jinki sighed but gave in, shoulders sinking as he reached for the suitcase, Kibum’s smirk grew into a smile. “Great! I knew you’d do it. Which way then?”

...

“Are you excited for the first day of school with me, Minnie?”

_ “So… school. Are you ready?” _

“Of course you can sit with my friends during lunch! They’ll love you. There’s Minho and Jinki—”

_ “…my friends Minho and Jonghyun. You can sit with us if you want. It’s better than sitting alone, right?” _

...

“So here you are.” Jonghyun placed the two trays in his hands down on the table, motioning to Taemin to sit. “Hey, Choi, where’s Jinks?” There was not a response, the frog-like boy staring at Taemin without blinking and only shaking his trance after Jonghyun clapped just centimeters from his face. “Where’s Jinki?”

“He’s, um… showing his friend or something around, I think. Who’s this?” Taemin tried his best to not roll his eyes when Minho pointed like he wasn’t there. “I didn’t know you could make new friends.”

“ _ This _ ,” Jonghyun slung his arm over Taemin’s shoulder, startling him since he hadn’t been truly following along in the conversation, “is my little cousin. He’s from the US.”

“Really?!” Minho’s eyes got impossibly wider as he looked back at Taemin, giving a huge smile that the boy shyly returned. “Hello~” Jonghyun snorted at the poorly-pronounced English word, earning a smack on the back of his head from Minho.

“I speak Korean you know.”

“Oh, that’s good.” He gave a nervous chuckle. “I don’t speak much English.”

“I can tell.” Once again, Jonghyun snorted and Minho didn’t even bother trying to hit him again. “I wouldn’t be laughing if I were you, hyung. You’re not much better.”

“Yah! Taemin!”

“It’s true~” Taemin stuck his tongue out at his cousin, just about to blow a raspberry, when a new voice startled him into not moving.

“I already told you. I’m not sitting with you and a bunch of idiots. I mean, look at that kid. He’s, like, 12.”

There was a pause as Jonghyun and Minho looked at the people behind Taemin, and as he slowly brought his tongue back in and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Slowly, he turned on heel and faced the strangers, glaring at the feline-like boy staring at him. “ _ What _ did you just say?”

“I mean, how’d he get in here anyway? Shouldn’t he be at the elementary school across the street?” He turned to the other stranger, blinking his eyes in fake-innocent as he looked at him.

Taemin froze for a second, he glare faltering for a second before he put even more strength into it. “Shouldn’t you be in the girls’ bathroom fixing your makeup or something?”

“Oh, like pretty boy here doesn’t wear any.” The feline boy pushed past Taemin, taking the chair that had been intended for him. “So, Jinks, who are these freaks?”

“Asshole.” Without waiting to see if anyone figured out what he has said in English, Taemin stalked out, leaving the group of friends stunned and Kibum smirking.

...

“Sorry I’m late.” Taemin barely bit a groan back when he heard a new voice enter the English class. “I got a little lost in these halls.”

“Aw it’s okay, they can be very confusing.” Practically all the students laughed at the teacher’s over-sympathy, and at the new student that shuffled uncomfortably with it. “Just go sit next to Taemin and I’ll give you your books at the end of class. Taemin, raise your hand please.”

Kibum didn’t even wait for it to go up before he was walking down the aisle of seats and taking the open seat at the table for two. “Why me?”

“Is something wrong, Taemin?”

“Not at all, Ms. Smith,” he returned in fluent English, shocking the majority of the class. “I’m sorry for being disrespectful.”

“Oh, you speak very well!”

“I was moved to the US when I was very little and just moved back here.” He couldn’t help but smirk a little as Kibum shifted awkwardly beside him, the older boy’s eyes slightly wider than they were before.

“Where in the US, might I ask?”

“New Jersey. Not far from New York City.”

“Oh, really? The city is truly beautiful.” She gave a small smile before focusing back on the class a little more. “Maybe you’ll be a wonderful tutor for some of them. Yes?”

Taemin only gave a small smile and a shrug, relaxing slightly in the chair when the teacher turned away. Kibum only snorted, turning away from him with a simple insult muttered under his breath. “ _ Show off _ .”

“It’s hard to show off if you don’t know what you’re doing though, so yeah, I guess.” When Kibum whipped around to look at him, Taemin only gave a wide overly-innocent smile. “So,  _ table buddy _ , liking it here yet? Or do you hate it as much as I do?”

There was a pause as Kibum’s eyes narrowed, taking in Taemin’s sentence and deciding if he was telling the truth or not. “What’s there for you to hate here? You and your cousin seem all buddy-buddy when Jinki and I have hated each other since we were little babies.”

“I guess that’s true… But I hate it here in general. I only got here two days ago and I’m already back in school with a language I barely remember. And the food here is disgusting.” Kibum snorted at that. “ _ What _ ? It is. It’s all really salty and not the right type of spicy. Nothing like American food.”

“You’re complaining about food?”

“Well you need to eat to live and right now I can barely eat so… yeah.” Taemin gave a small laugh, hiding under the talking of the other students to not get caught in their off-topic conversation. “But what’s there for you to hate?”

“My parents just up and left and decided they didn’t ‘want to uproot me again’ so they shipped me a few cities over while they went on their world-tour without me.” Kibum gave a bitter laugh. “So nice of them, right?”

...

“Who are you texting, Minnie?”

_ “Who has you so attached to your phone, Bummie?” _

“Just someone from school, Jjongie.”

_ “No one of importance to you, Jinks.” _

...

“Are you sure you don’t want to do anything in here? Not even paint the walls?”

“It’ll just be a bother for you guys after I leave. Besides, white’s not so bad.”

“Are you sure?” When Taemin nodded without looking up from his phone, Jonghyun’s head dropped a little. “Okay… Do you want to go out with me? I was going to go to the shops in a little and—”

“That sounds great hyung.” Taemin looked up just long enough to flash a smile before looking down at his phone, and Jonghyun’s head perked up immediately. “You should invited Minho and Jinki too. And Key if he wants to come with Jinki.”

“Oh…” Jonghyun swallowed his disappointment, forcing a smile onto his face as Taemin glanced up. “Yeah, I guess I will. You can use the bathroom first to get ready then…”

“Thank you hyung!”

...

There were only four chairs at a table in the restaurant the boys were meeting up in, but that didn’t bother Kibum as he and Jinki got there last. Without hesitation, he stopped right next to Taemin’s chair and gave his leg a not-so-gentle kick. “Up.”

The three all got ready for a catfight much like the one in the cafeteria a few days earlier, but Taemin surprised them all when he stood without complaint, cramming one last piece of food in his mouth as he did. Kibum didn’t comment, sinking into the chair and getting comfortable before patting the back of Taemin’s thigh gently. “Down.” And he listened, sitting comfortably—save for the fact that his butt was really bony, but that was Taemin’s own fault—on Kibum’s leg. For a few moments, there was silence, no sounds coming from the other three, and the two took that as their chance to grab as much as they could without being fought away from it.

Eventually though, when they sat back into the chair with Taemin leaning back on Kibum’s chest, Jonghyun cleared his throat and motioned between the two of them with his chopsticks. “Are you two… didn’t you hate each other?”

“What’s the point in hating the only other person that understands you?”

...

“Just make sure to be back by 10!”

_ “Don’t be out too late, Kibum! We have to leave early tomorrow to see Grandma!” _

“Are you sure you don’t want me coming with, Minnie? You’ve never been to Myeongdong before.”

_ “Do you want me to come with? You’re going to need someone to carry all your bags, Bummie~” _

_... _

“So… where do you want to go?”

“Wherever you want.”

“I’ve been literally everywhere here before. You choose.” Kibum chuckled when Taemin’s eyes widened slightly, head whipping to face him in shock.

“Everywhere?”

“Everywhere.”

“Really?”

“Really.” Taemin blinked at him in stunned amazement and Kibum’s chuckles turned into true laughter. “So where do you want to go?”

“I’ve never been here before so…”

“ _ Never _ ?” Taemin slowly shook his head, turning Kibum into the shocked one now. “But didn’t you live here before?”

“I was like… 4. I think. And I lived outside of the city. Somewhere in the country.” He shrugged, looking around the crowded streets. “So where do you recommend?”

...

As Kibum held up shirt after shirt, Taemin soon found himself looking at things other than the clothes. Kibum’s arms that had muscles that rippled every now and then, hidden normally in the skinny limbs; Kibum’s legs that were almost as thin as his and prettier than any guy’s legs had the right to be; Kibum’s tummy that was just slightly not-flat and Taemin found that endearing; Kibum’s fluffy hair that bounced with his every move; Kibum’s lips that seemed perfectly smooth and that were just slightly glossy, as if he had put on lip gloss before they went out; just  _ Kibum _ .

“—Taemin? What do you think?”

_ I think I want to kiss you _ .

And that was what he did.

...

“What are you doing home so early, Taemin?”

_ “Where are all your bags, Bummie? Did you forget them somewhere? Need me to get them from the car for you?” _

“Are you okay, Tae? You didn’t come down for breakfast… Do you not feel well?”

_ “Why do you keep touching your lips, Bummie? Did you cut it or something?” _

...

When Kibum saw the seat next to his in English empty for the third day in a row, enough was enough. Without even telling the teacher why, he stood and left, ignoring the call for him that follow. It wasn’t as hard as he expected to get out of the school, and as he walked down the street, faint memories of the one time he went to Jonghyun’s house months before when he first moved in came back.

And that was how he found himself at the front door, ringing the doorbell over and over until a girl with squinted eyes eventually opened it. “You must be the asshole. He’s in his room. Make him stop.”

He wasn’t prepared for the hand on his collar that pulled him inside, nor the rough push towards the stairs. But as Kibum stumbled up the steps, he could almost understand the girl’s pain—every now and then, a pitiful and loud sniffle rang out through the house. It wasn’t hard to find the room with Taemin like that, and he didn’t even knock before throwing the door open. “You know, next time you kiss me, make sure you’ve had a mint or something first. Ketchup doesn’t taste good the second time around.”

He stopped sniffling mid-sniffle, head slowly turning to look at Kibum with tear-reddened eyes and tear tracks down his face. “Kibum-hyung?”

He didn’t answer, throwing himself down on the edge of the bed instead and getting closer to Taemin’s puffy face than either expected. But with the same lack of warning that Taemin gave him, he leaned forward and pressed his lips to the younger boy’s dry ones, simple, sweet, and barely there. Only a second later did he pull back, staring right into Taemin’s eyes as he opened them. “I expect them once a day, at least.”

Taemin cracked a sad smile at that, his tears stopped but the ghost of them still in his eyes and evidence down his face. “You don’t have to do this, hyung. I get it. You don’t like me.”

“Where’d you get that from?”

“Otherwise you would have—”

“Do you think I would have just kissed you—you who probably hasn’t brushed his teeth in over a day—if I didn’t like you?” He gave a small smirk as Taemin quieted while barely started. “At least once a day. Got it?”

...

The next day, Taemin sat at lunch on Kibum’s leg even though there were plenty of seats open and leaned back, pecking the other boy’s lips before turning to his lunch.

And Kibum only laughed as he reached forward to steal a French fry, watching the reactions of the three from the corner of his eye. He bit it in half, feeding the other half to a confused Taemin who slowly took it and was rewarded with a peck on his cheek. “Definitely better without ketchup breath.”

Taemin could only laugh. Even as Minho up and left, faking-gagging at “their cheesiness” (“ _ we said ketchup, not cheese sauce, hyung! _ ”), as Jinki stuttered out a response somewhere along the lines of “when did this happen?”, and even as Jonghyun started passionately talking about the couple he deemed his “fav real-life otp”.

After all, wasn’t it just each other they needed? It was nice to have the others support him—even if Minho found it hard to accept at first—when strangers were cruel, but Taemin really only needed Kibum’s gentle hands there to hold him up when the taunts and slurs tried to push him down.

And all Kibum needed was Taemin.


End file.
